My happiness is hidden in the happiness of others.

- Nowadays-Preity Shah

- Sonia says that initially she used to buy clothes, needle, thread and other raw materials herself and deliver them to the factory.

So Niya Anand was working as a managing consultant in a reputed company in Mumbai for fifteen years, but when she decided to quit her job in the corporate sector to start her own business, her family opposed her decision. Especially for her father it was very difficult to accept this decision of Sonia. As a sign of ritual, Sonia was working on a World Bank project when she met tribal girls from Bihar's Nalanda district. Those twelve-thirteen-year-old girls had guns in their hands instead of pens. Seeing that, Sonia asked them why you don't go to school, the girls burst out laughing and said that the reality of our lives is completely different from that of other girls. This conversation with him touched Sonia's heart and remained in her mind for many days. She used to talk about this in every meeting she went to. It constantly occurred to him that the policies he was working on had no real impact on the society. From this incident, she was constantly feeling a kind of restlessness.

It was during this period that her work with different consulting firms gave her the opportunity to work on social and economic empowerment of women from underprivileged communities, especially women from Naxal-affected areas. Once he had to go to Odisha for work, he happened to meet tribal women artisans outside the Chief Minister's office. All those women worked as tailors and came from Tirupur in Tamil Nadu and Faridabad in Haryana in search of jobs. He heard about the constant suffering and hardships of those women and that incident turned out to be a turning point in Sonia's life. He quit his job and decided to work for these women. Started a clothing brand called Monk & Mei in 2018. Started with one hundred sewing machines on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, he was joined by thirty tribal women artisans. Gradually today its number has reached to a single artisan.

Recollecting those days of her struggle, Sonia says that initially she used to buy clothes, needle, thread and other raw materials herself and deliver them to the factory. In the beginning no one gets help. No one was even willing to deliver to the factory address. He started making corporate uniforms. This work of Sonia changed the lives of many women. An employee named Pari thanked Sonia and said that if she had not found such a job, she would have been married at the age of fifteen and sent to work in a garment factory in Ghaziabad or Tirupur.

Sonia's work was getting organized slowly. In 2019, there was a lot of cyclone Fani

Damaged, but continued his work without becoming discouraged or defeated. Started work again with a craftsman in his home garage in Mumbai. It aimed to reach consumers easily by creating designer clothes through the Monk & Mei brand. They wanted to make clothes that fit people's budget. Not too expensive. For this she needed to do a lot of research, Sonia got the design printed on linen clothes. He named the collection 'A Rose From My Old Diary'. In which roses were digitally printed on the clothes and in 2020 he launched this collection in the market. Five hundred styles were sold in fifteen days. Ayub, a tailor, says that he has been working with Sonia since 2019. Initially they had two machines, but gradually the work started to increase. When the country went into lockdown, many lost their jobs, but their work continued to grow, so they bought two more machines and hired eight tailors. He also employed a dye master. So in 2020 Shivani Chachan joined here as Officer for Community. Having a bachelor's degree in fashion design, he started working with Monk & Mei. He says that he got the opportunity to work in many departments so learned a lot and developed his personality. Today, Sonia's team works on fabrics like block and dabboo prints, chikankari, chanderi, brocade and muslin. Fifty five percent of the customers of this brand of clothes are from metros and forty five percent from small towns. They produce clothes for people aged twenty-two to fifty-five, available in almost all sizes. Monk & Mei's clothes go to America, Canada, Australia, Europe and Dubai, but he wants to sell his clothes in small towns, so that they too can wear fashionable clothes for less money. He makes his mask, earring or head pin along with his clothes, so that the clothes are not wasted and more employment opportunities are created. Aiming at a turnover of three hundred crores in the next three years, Sonia has given an important place to reduce, reuse and recycle in her business. Sonia says that I cannot describe in words the happiness the women who work with me get from this work.

My village greets me with emotion!

He had some trouble adjusting to city life, but he didn't have time to think about it all

When people living a comfortable life in Shahro get tired of the daily grind, they feel like taking a 'break' from it and start thinking about where to go. Finally one chooses a seaside beach, in the lap of mountains, in the greenery of a forest, where there is natural beauty or a quiet picturesque place. People who visit for a few days enjoy themselves there, but rarely think about the lives of the people living in the tourist destination. Hardly anyone knows what kind of struggle the natives are going through. The largest coastal region between India and Bangladesh is called Mangrove Forest. It is one such region. It has one hundred and two islands in India's border, of which about fifty five islands are inhabited and one of them is Bali.

Prasenjit Mandal was born in Bali. Living here for years, his grandfather and father used to work in fishing and collecting honey and the family lived on the meager income earned from it. From this income, barely two tins of food was received, but the real trouble came when natural calamities like cyclones or floods occurred every year and their houses made of mud and grass were destroyed. This is not just the story of Prasenjit's house, but anyone's house. His father put Prasenjit in school so he had to work harder. They would go far and wide in the forest to collect honey and the household would wait with anxious eyes till they returned home, as it was a common occurrence to fall prey to crocodiles or tigers. With fifteen villages and a population of thirty-seven thousand, the island had a school and a health center, but in severe cases, many had to travel far for treatment, so the patient often died on the way.

Even amidst such difficult and conflicting situation, Prasenjit's father resolved to send his son to high school. This forced the sale of some valuables in the house, but Prasenjit continued his studies. Prasenjit, aware of the situation at home, also studied with great attention and passed with good marks. He completed his schooling through the government scheme and his father's tireless perseverance, but he had no money for higher college education. Finally, he moved to Kolkata in 2010 to help the family. The world of Calcutta was completely new to Prasenjit. He had some trouble adjusting to city life, but he didn't have time to think about it all. He had to find a job immediately so that he could meet his expenses. In that case, he got a job as a guard. Being frugal and sending some money to parents. Along with the job, he learned computers, so that he could get a higher paying job. He fulfilled that dream by getting a job in the National Industrial Corporation. Salary increased, courage increased and confidence increased.

Which opened the door for him to move forward in life. Graduated from Rabindra Bharti University with an MA in Bengali Language and Literature, and also completed a Computer Operator and Programming Assistant course from ITI, Kolkata.

Prasenjit started living a safe life in Calcutta, but he often missed his village. Do they think that the person they left behind is still living the same life? He started thinking seriously about what can be done to change his life. He started a free 'Brihaspati Computer Training Centre' in his village Gausaba in the name of his mother, but had to close due to lack of money and lack of public support. A strong desire to do something for one's village and nothing in front, so the restlessness started to grow in the mind. Finally in 2016 he came back to his village. Here he founded the Sudarshan Foundation. Initially started a school and a health center, in which the villagers did not have to spend anything. Encouraged people for agriculture. Organized several agricultural training camps in many villages of Bali Island in collaboration with Ramakrishna Mission and Bidhanchandra Agricultural University. Farmers benefited from these camps. Gradually the work of Sudarshan Foundation started to get noticed and it got recognition from the government.

e. S. In 2017, a beekeeping center was started with the assistance of 'Khadi and Village Industries Commission', Government of India. Their motive behind it was to avoid having to go to the forest to get honey and to avoid death due to attacks by wild animals. About five hundred people and especially widows got a lot of help from the beekeeping center. Fifty hundred families started getting income of five to six thousand rupees a month. Prasenjit started the 'Sunderban Royal Eco Resort' for tourists visiting Sundarbans, so that the local youth started getting employment. 35-year-old Babu Dani who was working as a waiter in a hotel in Kolkata. He returned to his village during the lockdown and today works at Prasenjit's resort. Since 2017 Prasenjit has been planting mangrove trees all over the island of Bali with the help of youth, women and widows. Around one lakh mangrove saplings have been planted so far. Many people have got employment through this. Today some volunteers say that we cannot live without planting mangroves. Mangroves save us and we enjoy doing this work. Prasenjit Mandal is enjoying his stay in Bali.